1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related in general to the field of products used by an end user to create their own cigars or cigarettes. More particularly, the invention is related to an improved packaging for rolling papers used in roll your own smoking articles.
2. Discussion of the Background
Many end users prefer to roll their own smoking articles, such as cigars, cigarettes or the like. Papers or other sheets of material used as the outer wrapper for smoking articles are commonly made from leaves or pulp derived from a variety of sources, such as, wood, rice, cellulose, flax, plant fibers, packed herbs, palm leaf, tobacco, paper or some combination of the foregoing (collectively referred to herein as “rolling paper”). Rolling papers can be used to roll cigarette tobacco, cigar tobacco, pipe tobacco, tobacco substitutes, herbs, and most any other similar material. The papers are distributed and sold in individual packs that include an outer packaging, which typically serves to protect and sometimes preserve the rolling papers therein. That packaging typically maintains the rolling papers in either a basically flat or folded shape. In some instances, certain types of paper, such as, paper made from reconstituted tobacco, is packaged as a rolled tube of one or more sheets of paper, and in some instances, that tube is wrapped tightly around a plastic straw or other casing as discussed below.
To roll a smoking article, an end user typically removes one or more rolling papers from its packaging, manipulates the one or more rolling papers (as discussed in detail below), places a desired amount of tobacco in the one or more rolling papers, and rolls the one or more rolling papers into a tubular shape. The tubular shape is then sealed using adhesive or moisture, and allowed to dry to form a shell, which contains the tobacco product. After drying, the smoking article may be smoked by the end user.
A problem associated with rolling your own smoking articles is that it is often difficult for an end user to actually roll the smoking article. The end user has to be skillful in carefully adding the tobacco in the rolling paper and in rolling the cigarette. When rolling the smoking article tension must be maintained on the paper itself and pressure maintain on the tobacco therein in order to roll a preferred smoking article, where the outer paper is relatively firm and the tobacco therein is sufficiently compressed to prevent air channels through the length thereof. Hence, while rolling the article, the end user must maintain tension on the paper and pressure on the tobacco without tearing or puncturing the paper itself.
Existing packaging for rolling papers, which maintains the rolling papers in either a basically flat shape or a tubular shape, often increases the difficulty in rolling the smoking article. In particular, rolling paper that is contained within packaging having a flat shape requires the end user to manipulate the rolling paper by folding the rolling paper after determining where to fold the rolling paper. The user then inserts the tobacco product, and rolls the rolling paper such that it will hopefully remain in place while rolling a preferred smoking article as discussed above. Paper products that are folded, and typically interleaved, in the packaging present additional problems. These paper products include a v-fold usually in the middle of the rolling paper. The end user is required to re-fold the paper, which in some cases is problematic. Also problematic is that the original fold does not fully disappear. In particular, the v-fold often does not allow for efficient rolling and sealing of the paper and may result in undesirable characteristics in the smoking product, such as, smoking articles having undesirable air channels along the original v-fold in which air may be pulled through.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,525 discloses the above-mentioned conventional form of packaging rolling papers in a tubular shape. It depicts and describes rolling paper tightly wound around a form, which may or may not be included in the rolling paper as it is placed in a resealable packet for sale to end-users. When the end user removes a tube of rolling paper from the sealed packet, the rolling paper generally retains its coiled shape. To create a smoking article, an end user is required to first carefully unroll the coiled paper, and maintain pressure on it so that the paper does not recoil. As such, the rolling paper is difficult to unroll without damaging the paper and unstable for adding tobacco products. After unrolling the rolling paper, the end user typically bends and folds the rolling paper as desired, inserts the tobacco product, and rerolls the paper to create a smoking article. Hence, this conventional manner of packaging rolling papers makes it more difficult to create a suitable smoking article and more difficult to do so without damaging the rolling paper. Also, this method of packaging rolling papers is not suitable for many types of paper where the recoil of the paper after rolling and packaging would be so strong that it would be difficult to unroll the paper and create a smoking article without damaging the paper.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,986, also issued to Sinclair, attempts to address the difficulty in making roll your own smoking articles with a cigar shell. That shell is created by rolling several sheets of rolling paper or leaves of tobacco around a casing to form an outer cigar shell. Once the cigar shell is formed in that manner, it is left to dry. Once dried, the casing is removed and the cigar shell is cut longitudinally so that an inner void, once occupied by the casing, within the cigar shell can be exposed by the end user by prying the sides of the shell apart. That void is then filled with tobacco by the end user, and the edges of the longitudinal cut are moistened so that the cigar shell can be sealed. While this product addresses the difficulty of creating a roll your own smoking article, that solution has drawbacks. The cigar shell is more expensive to manufacture than the rolling paper typically used to make a cigar or other smoking article, and the end user must consume the bulky casing along with the tobacco inserted therein. Also, the end user still must struggle with the recoil of the cigar casing when attempting to make the smoking article.
Existing packaging and the rolling paper contained therein is therefore inherently difficult to use and are not conducive to rolling the smoking article. Thus, as noted above, there currently exist numerous deficiencies in packaging for smoking articles that are known in the prior art.